John Williams (NSW, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Australia has always contributed over the last 100 or so years to playing its role in achieving world peace. This war against terrorism is no different. Australia has a proud history when we look at the heroic efforts of Australian soldiers in the Boer War, in World War I at the Battle of Beersheba, in World War II with the Rats of Tobruk achieving world peace there and especially in New Guinea, in the Korean War, in the Vietnam War at the Battle of Long Tan where Australian soldiers excelled with courage, in East Timor where we brought stability and now in Iraq and Afghanistan.

As I said at the start of my speech last night, it would be good to live in a perfect world; however, we do not. We see what terrorists have done. Brad Ridley from Forbes, who was one of my customers, was unfortunately killed in the bombing in Bali. There was the devastation of the towers in New York on September 11. Surely we cannot just turn our backs on what these terrorists are doing. If we do, then their murderous and destructive ways will simply continue. That is why we have to be part of this allied contribution in Afghanistan to bring Afghanistan to a state where it can look after itself, govern itself and have a strong defence force and police force to enforce their own laws to look after their country.

It is very sad that already 21 Australian soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan. I have one ambition in my life, and that is never to stand at the gravesite of one of my children. Unfortunately, many parents of those 21 soldiers have had to do that. That is sad in itself. We are fully aware that, if you join the Defence Force—if you join the Army, the Navy or the Air Force—you are taking on a dangerous occupation. Unfortunately, we have now seen the loss of 21 soldiers in Afghanistan. If those soldiers could speak to us today I wonder if they would say, ‘Get out of Afghanistan; walk away,’ or would say: ‘We have a job to do here. We have to clean this mess up in an effort to rid the world of terrorism so future generations can, hopefully, live in long-lasting peace.’ To cut and run now would be a betrayal in my opinion.

Our soldiers and our allies deserve our total support. Afghanistan must be able to stand on its own two feet. It has been a haven for the training of terrorists. We know that that is where many learned their terrible trades, if you can call them that, and carry out their activities against innocent human beings. I know that our soldiers are amongst the best, if not the best, in the world. They deserve our total support. They have a job to do. It is expensive. Unfortunately, it has been going on for a long time and will probably continue to go on for several years yet. But to cut and run now, to leave Afghanistan, to walk away from our allies who stuck with us during the Second World War, especially the United States of America, would be to me a betrayal of what we believe in and a betrayal of our allies.

I keep going back to the point that I wish we lived in a perfect world. Hopefully, one day we will, but we are far from it at the moment. While we have innocent people being killed and blown up by terrorist activities then this is something that our nation and our allies should never turn their backs on. We believe in freedom, we believe in democracy and we believe in peace, but so often peace comes at a cost. That has been the case in the world wars, in Korea, in Vietnam and in the following wars, and this is no different. This is a war against terrorists. We must do our bit and fight the war so that eventually we can say that we have had the win, we have had the victory. We have seen success in Iraq. We now have to go the full distance and see the victory day in Afghanistan.

I am not going to speak for much longer, but I just say in summary that I support our efforts in Afghanistan. I support our efforts in search of world peace, to rid the world of terrorism, to do the right thing by so many Australians—more than 80 were killed in Bali alone from the terrible bombing there—to do our bit and to play our role so that future generations not only in Australia but around the world can, hopefully, live in a peaceful world. As I said, peace comes at a price. It is terrible we have to pay that price. But I do believe that we should throw our total support behind this effort. Hopefully, sooner rather than later, we will see the victory which is ultimately the goal.